Downton Abbey season 5: 10 spoilers in 60 seconds

Have you finally got over Downton series four? Wiped your brow and calmed yourself? Good, because there’s more drama to come.

We haven’t got long to wait until the start of the new season, so here are 10 clues about new dramas happening at the infamous abbey…

1. It’s set in 1924, with the election of the first Labour government, and the times they are a-changing. Below stairs, opportunity knocks. Upstairs, feathers are being ruffled.

2. Anna Chancellor will be ruffling even more feathers as Lady Anstruther – she’s a saucy one, that one.

3. Richard E Grant also pops up as art historian Simon Bricker for a few episodes, but not everyone who wants a part gets one. ‘We won’t be led by that – it’s got to be organic with the story,’ says exec producer Liz Trubridge of the five‑star casting.

There’s a new art historian in town in the form of Simon Bricker, played by Richard E Grant (Picture: Carnival Film & Television Ltd)

4. Branson – former chauffeur turned husband of the dead Sybil – is now well into the aristocratic fold but with the socialists in power his political loyalties are tested.

‘It’s definitely a challenge for Branson, not only where he sits within his classes, but what kind of man he wants to be,’ says Allen Leech, who plays him.

‘In terms of politics, I think he’s such a changed man, it would be impossible to go back to the man he was. He’s not as naïve as he was… he was a bit of a firebrand.’